Cobden at Cumberland

Cobden Scouts were up at Cumberland Cottage for our annual end-of-November visit.

Having arrived and slogged our way up the path with all our kit in a harsh winter wind on Friday night, we were pleased to find more settled weather on the Saturday and Sunday, with it still being cold (close to freezing!) but actually quite pleasant when stood in the sunshine.

Friday night was dominated with ghost stories, and the (obviously true) stories about the history of the Cottage.

Saturday was spent wooding, with the Scouts running around both sides of the ravine to find the best bits of fallen wood, to burn that evening. Without the wood it would be a pretty cold night ahead, so the Scouts didn’t need too much motivating!? After a few hours of chopping and sawing it was time to actually start the fire, with the matches being handed to the youngest scout, Jake Fell, who somehow managed to luck-out and get the fire going with his one match, despite having no discernable plan or strategy!?

After dinner it was time for a quick wide game (the traditional Cumberland get-the-bucket back one), before devouring chocolate cake and biscuits until bedtime. The ‘one word story’ (where each scout says a word in turn, around the fire) turned out to be surprisingly popular!

With a lot of wood left over from Saturday, we just had a little chopping and sawing to do on the Sunday, with the Scouts facing-off in Man Hunt whilst most of the tidying up was done! A quick trip to the waterfall and it was time to head home, back to civilisation, clean running water, wifi, phone signal and central heating! We’ll be back! 🙂